Tim Cook: The latest on Apple's CEO

Tim Cook is Apple's CEO and a member of their board of directors, and the reason that Apple products can be both manufactured and sold less-expensively than ever. A logistical mastermind with an uncanny ability to recollect facts and figures, Cook has led Apple's climb up the profit and stock charts to record levels.

Here's everything you need to know.

May 13, 2018: Here's what Tim Cook said during his Duke Commencement speech

Tim Cook, a Duke Fuqua alumnus and CEO of Apple, delivers the commencement address to the Class of 2018.

I love that "Be Fearless" made the title.

April 19, 2018: Cook says macOS and iOS should remain seperate

Speaking recently following Apple's education event in Chicago, Tim Cook talked about the possibility of combining macOS and iOS into a unified operating system that would run on all of Apple's devices. Cook doesn't think that such a merger is something customers are looking for.

"We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other. Both [The Mac and iPad] are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises."

"So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that's not what it's about. You know it's about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don't think that's what users want."

Apple executives have previously stated their preferences for keeping the operating systems separate, with Phil Schiller once calling such an effort "a waste of energy." When it comes to bringing iOS hardware features like touchscreens to Macs, the late Steve Jobs expressed at Apple's 2010 MacBook Air event that such a feature would result in bad ergonomics.

September 11, 2017: Apple's impact on health, education, and the environment

In a new interview, Cook talks about Apple's impact on the world, both through its products, as well as how it runs itself as a company. Cook points to things such as the company's attempts to run its facilities across the world on 100% renewable power, its efforts to bring coding curriculums to classrooms, and its work in privacy.

So that's the primary way we change the world. We also try to change the world by the way we run the company. And whether that's being very focused on the environment and making sure that we have a no-carbon footprint, essentially, or running our company on 100% renewable energy.
We advocate for human rights, because Apple has always been about making products for everyone. And, arguably, if people are treated as second-class citizens in any part of the world, then it's kind of hard to accomplish that objective.
We believe education is a great equalizer. And so we try our best to bring education to the mainstream. And right now our major thrust is in coding because we think that coding is the sort of the second language for everyone in the world. And that's regardless of whether they're in technology or not. I think that you don't have to be in technology for coding to be very important.

Cook also touched on how Apple prices its products, and pushed back when it was suggested that Apple's prices were too high.

But if you look across our product lines, you can buy an iPad today for under $300. You can buy an iPhone, depending upon which one you select, for in that same kind of ballpark. And so these are not for the rich. We obviously wouldn't have over a billion products that are in our active installed base if we were making them for the rich because that's a sizable number no matter who's looking at the numbers

August 31, 2017: Hurricane Harvey's impact on Apple and what the company is doing

As you know, Hurricane Harvey is having a devastating impact on Texas and Louisiana. Our thoughts are with our employees in the storm zone and the millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by rain, wind and floods. I want to update you on some of the things Apple has been doing to help, and ways that you can get involved.

On the ground, Apple's global crisis management team is working to support our employees directly affected by the flooding in Texas. The team is in close contact with Apple employees in the Houston area, and they're actively doing everything they can to assist, including moving some employees and their families to safety. Apple employees in the Houston area have generously been helping people displaced by the flooding by opening their homes to team members and their families, and in some cases, assisting in rescue operations. We're also proud that the US Coast Guard is using Apple products in those efforts, with nearly two dozen USCG helicopters specially equipped with iPads to help coordinate search and rescue teams.

As Harvey was making landfall, we put in motion critical donation programs. Apple is making it easy for customers to donate directly to the American Red Cross through the App Store, iTunes and apple.com, and we're matching employee donations two-for-one. Thanks to your generosity and that of our users, Apple has helped raise more than $1 million in just the past few days. That's in addition to the $2 million Apple pledged to the Red Cross over the weekend.

Though our stores in the Houston area are still closed today, we're working hard to get as many as possible open tomorrow to serve people who have been impacted by the storm. Our teams are eager to help with problems large and small, and they know there are lots of people in that area who need it.

I was in Austin the day before Harvey came ashore, and the team was already bracing for the storm and the long recovery. Today that work continues. At our Austin campuses, we are kicking off a donation drive in partnership with the Central Texas Food Bank and Caffè Macs to collect food, diapers and personal hygiene items — all things that are critical in the aftermath of a storm of this magnitude.

Because Texas is home to more than 8,700 of our coworkers, the storm's impact is felt by all of us. There's still much to do, and Apple is committed to help.

The U.S Red Cross also takes Apple Pay, and you can donate to local relief efforts on the ground as well.

August 28, 2017: Apple has a 'moral responsibility' to 'contribute to this country and to contribute to the other countries'

In a new interview, Tim Cook comments on the dwindling functionality of government and the importance of companies and other areas of society to step up and contribute in the U.S. and around the world.

"I think we have a moral responsibility to help grow the economy, to help grow jobs, to contribute to this country and to contribute to the other countries that we do business in," he said.

He added, "I think there's still probably a more significant group that feels my sole responsibility is to Wall Street."

Cook also touched on the newly expanded App Development with Swift curriculum, announced last Friday in Austin.

He said he had chosen to focus on getting the curriculum to community colleges, rather than four-year colleges, because "as it turns out, the community college system is much more diverse than the four-year schools, particularly the four-year schools that are known for comp sci." He noted that "there is a definite diversity issue in tech, in particular in coding and computer scientists."

Apple has already rolled out the curriculum in Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania, among other states. "You want it to increase the diversity of people that are in there, both racial diversity, gender diversity, but also geographic diversity," Mr. Cook said. "Right now, the benefits of tech are too lopsided to certain states." (Like California.)

As iCloud, Apple Music, App Store, and all of Apple's other services businesses continue to grow, and the company completes its move off of AWS and Azure to its own server infrastructure, Apple is bringing more and more data centers online. They serve to both highlight the companies ecologically-friendly policies but also the realities of serving both customers and increasingly nationalistic governments who want jobs and data in the region they're serving.

Like so many of you, equality is at the core of my beliefs and values. The events of the past several days have been deeply troubling for me, and I've heard from many people at Apple who are saddened, outraged or confused.

What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country. Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world.

We must not witness or permit such hate and bigotry in our country, and we must be unequivocal about it. This is not about the left or the right, conservative or liberal. It is about human decency and morality. I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans.

Regardless of your political views, we must all stand together on this one point — that we are all equal. As a company, through our actions, our products and our voice, we will always work to ensure that everyone is treated equally and with respect.

I believe Apple has led by example, and we're going to keep doing that. We have always welcomed people from every walk of life to our stores around the world and showed them that Apple is inclusive of everyone. We empower people to share their views and express themselves through our products.

In the wake of the tragic and repulsive events in Charlottesville, we are stepping up to help organizations who work to rid our country of hate. Apple will be making contributions of $1 million each to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. We will also match two-for-one our employees' donations to these and several other human rights groups, between now and September 30.

In the coming days, iTunes will offer users an easy way to join us in directly supporting the work of the SPLC.

Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." So, we will continue to speak up. These have been dark days, but I remain as optimistic as ever that the future is bright. Apple can and will play an important role in bringing about positive change.

Best,

Tim

Cook has a history of staying engaged with people and in places where he believes Apple can use its considerable influence to affect change. It remains to be seen how or if that might change going forward.

If Tim Cook wants one thing to outlast him at Apple, it's the legacy of late co-founder Steve Jobs. In a recent interview, Cook spoke about how tied the company still was to Jobs' ideals, even five and a half years after his death. sweating the small details, building for quality, and understanding the importance of user experience, Cook says, are baked into Apple's foundation.

In essence, these principles that Steve learned over many years are the basis for Apple. It doesn't mean the company hasn't changed. The company's going to change. It's going to go into different product areas. It's going to learn and adjust. Many things have changed in the company, even in the last six to seven years. But our "Constitution" shouldn't change. It should remain the same. I think of it as a North Star. It's always important to have that in mind as you make decisions. It ­actually makes decision-making much simpler.

Cook was also asked about some of Apple's recent announcements, including the upcoming HomePod speaker and the company's forays into augmented reality (AR). On where AR is going, Cook had this to say:

You'll see things happening in enterprises where AR is ­fundamental to what they're doing. You're going to see some consumer things that are unbelievably cool. Can we do everything we want to do now? No. The technology's not complete yet. But that's the beauty to a certain degree. This has a runway. And it's an incredible runway. It's time to put the seat belt on and go. When people begin to see what's possible, it's going to get them very excited—like we are, like we've been.

Cook also talked about Apple's efforts in enterprise technology, the company's advanced manufacturing fund, and his experience working with President Donald Trump:

We're dramatically different. I hope there's some areas where we're not. His focus on jobs is good. So we'll see. Pulling out of the Paris climate accord was very disappointing. I felt a responsibility to do every single thing I could for it not to happen. I think it's the wrong decision. If I see another opening on the Paris thing, I'm going to bring it up again.

Bloomberg's full interview with Tim Cook will be available in the June 19 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

What's Tim Cook's background?

Born Timothy Donald Cook on December 1, 1960, in Robertsdale, Alabama, after graduating from Auburn University with a B.S. in industrial engineering in 1982, he got his M.B.A from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1988. He worked as COO of Intelligent Electronics, Director of North American Fulfillment at IBM, and as VP of Corporate Materials at Compaq. Then, in 1998, after a meeting with Steve Jobs, Cook joined Apple as SVP of Worldwide Operations. In 2005 Cook joined Nike's board of directors.

When did Tim Cook become CEO of Apple?

Cook became Apple's COO in 2007, and served as interim CEO in 2004 and 2009 while Jobs was on medical leave. When Steve Jobs resigned as CEO in 2011, Tim Cook was named Apple's new CEO and a member of their board of directors.